Stop mass incarceration against blacks

Starting from prison reformation in the 1970s, the incarceration rate in the US has increased by over 400%. Once someone is convicted and jailed, he or she is likely to be excluded from the society forever. Colleges will not accept formal prisoners, banks will not provide loans, access to social welfare will be shut down, and of course, it will become almost impossible to find a decent job. Without these opportunities, former prisoners are unlikely to become normal citizens again and have much greater chance of recommitting crimes. In fact, two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years for being marginalized from society.

More importantly, the United States is not incarcerating individuals, but social groups. Our prison system has incarcerated black youth on a massive scale, which implicitly perpetuates racism. While black people consist of about 13% the US population, they make up 39% of the incarcerated population. Instead of focusing on serious crimes such as rape and murder, the police are targeting poor inner-city blacks who rely on drug dealing as the only significant source of income. Incarcerating blacks in these poor communities only make things worse. Not only does it enforce a vicious cycle of crimes for adults, it also deprived children of the parental care. Statistics have shown that those who were raised by a single parent in poor communities are far more likely to commit a crime.

Most recently, on April 12th, 2018, two black men were arrested for no reason while waiting for a friend in a Starbucks. By creating this petition, we aim at discouraging police’s racism and favoritism against minor crimes, thus breaking the cycle of mass incarceration. This will be a big step towards ending poverty and racism. Whether mass incarceration affects us directly or not, we should all strive toward greater equality for ourselves and our children. We pled.